


Past Present Future

by Jodie



Category: due South
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Identity Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21763864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jodie/pseuds/Jodie
Summary: An enemy from the past endangers Ray, while Benton and Ray K. struggle to help.
Relationships: Benton Fraser & Ray Kowalski, Benton Fraser & Ray Vecchio
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7
Collections: due South Seekrit Santa 2019





	Past Present Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mekare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mekare/gifts).



A package was delivered to Benton Fraser’s office at the consulate. Fraser opened it and regarded the contents without understanding. He looked at the toy skeleton dressed in a hospital gown, tied to an ice cube tray, wondering why anyone would send him such a thing. Then he noticed that the tiny gown was printed with the logo of a local hospital. Suddenly, the memory of toys that hinted at dangerous threats dropped into place. He reached for the phone to call the Chicago Police Department.

Ray Kowalski met him at the hospital within a half hour. Reaching the morgue, Ray showed the attendant his badge and informed him of the situation, while Fraser headed toward the refrigerated compartments where the bodies were held. He opened one after another, his emotions at war: happiness when it wasn’t anyone he knew, terror that the next one might be. He pulled open the last door and pulled out the metal table. Lying there was an emaciated Ray Vecchio. Ray had never had a weight lifter’s physique, but he had been broad-chested and strong. This figure was little more than bones draped with loose skin. Fraser placed his hand on the side of Ray’s neck, trying to feel a pulse beneath.

While Vecchio was raced to the emergency room, Kowalski was led to the security office where he could check the closed circuit video. It was dull work, looking through the sparse traffic in the morgue. Ultimately, though, he saw something. He requested a copy of the digital image, which only took a moment. Then he headed up to the waiting area, looking for Fraser.

Fraser took hold of Ray’s hand and held it tightly. “What did you find out?” Ray replied that the security camera had caught the image of a man, of medium height and build, bald and pale skinned, pushing a gurney into the morgue. The figure lying on the gurney was clearly Ray Vecchio. The man pushing the gurney looked a lot like Charles Carver.

Back in the 1990s, Charles Carver had an excellent lawyer, but he wasn’t able to convince the judge that Carver’s arson conviction should be nullified, and that he shouldn’t be sent back to prison for breaking parole. Although Carver had succeeded in raising doubts about the evidence in his case, he couldn’t prove his assertion that Ray Vecchio had planted it. In addition, by going after Vecchio, Carver opened himself to prosecution for kidnapping Benton Fraser, and trying to crush the car Fraser and Vecchio were in. With witness corroboration from Lt. Welsh and others, there was no doubt about Carver’s conviction. In a plea deal, Carver’s lawyer had the crime reduced from attempted murder to assault. Carver’s admission to having murdered his former girlfriend was ruled inadmissible due to the circumstances, and, there being no corroborating evidence, he escaped a murder conviction. The abduction, assault, and stalking charges were enough to bring him a fifteen-year sentence, and those fifteen years were now past.

“And Vecchio, he’s alive? What’s going on?” Ray asked.

“He’s alive, but suffering from hypothermia and dehydration at the very least. It seems likely that he has suffered some organ and nerve damage. They’re trying to bring his body temperature back up before they can examine him more comprehensively.”

“Do you want me to stay here and keep you company, or work the investigation?”

Fraser sighed. “I’d love company, but I want to make sure that Carver doesn’t hurt Ray, or anybody else, again. I’ll call you when I hear more from the doctors, and you can call me and keep me up to date on what you’re doing.”

The next four days were a blur for both men. Fraser spent his days at work, followed by hours watching his unconscious friend lying still in a nest of tubing and electrodes. Ray checked on Charles Carver and found that he had completed his sentence and been released from prison two weeks prior. When Fraser left the hospital after visiting hours, he sat with Ray Kowalski, going over Carver’s financial records, trying to figure out where he was from his money trail. Finally, they had some information. Carver bought a ticket for a South America bound flight from O’Hare. Officers were sent to apprehend him, but arrived too late. The plane departed while they were still trying to find their way through the airport congestion.

The case was turned over to the Federal authorities, since the suspect was no longer within Chicago’s jurisdiction. Frustrated as they were, Fraser and Kowalski continued their wait at Ray Vecchio’s bedside. They kept Ray’s family informed, but rarely saw any of them. Both of Ray’s sisters were busy taking care of children, husbands, and work. Fraser remembered how the whole family turned out for Ray in the early days of their friendship, and wondered at the change. He spoke quietly to the figure lying still and quiet in the hospital bed. “What happened between you and your family, Ray? I had no idea that you had become as distant with them as you have with me. You don’t call me Benny anymore in our telephone conversations. You don’t confide your feelings, and you don’t ask about mine. I have no idea what you’ve been going through.”

The next day, Fraser received a call that Ray was awake. After getting off work, he headed to the hospital. Ray was sleeping when he got there, and didn’t wake before visiting hours were through. He had better luck the following day. Arriving at Ray’s room, Fraser was pleased to see that Ray was sitting up and talking to another visitor. A woman in late middle age sat beside the bed, listening intently to Ray’s murmured speech. Fraser hovered in the doorway, unseen. He knew that he shouldn’t listen in uninvited, but his unwillingness to interrupt, combined with his curiosity, kept him quiet.

Ray was explaining that he had been aware of Fraser’s presence at his bedside. “I’m so scared of saying the wrong thing, and giving him a reason to leave. He has Stanley, and even togged out like a bag lady he’s handsomer than I could ever hope to be. Everyone at the 2-7 preferred him to me. Frannie preferred him to me. We’ve gone over this so many times in therapy. I just can’t be around the people I love. I’m not the guy they thought they knew. I don’t really know who I am, except that I’m scared all the time.” The visitor said she’d be back on their regular appointment times until he was well enough to leave the hospital. That cleared up her identity for Fraser; she was Ray’s therapist. While he was glad that Ray had an outlet for his concerns, he was troubled that Ray didn’t feel that he could confide in anyone else in his life.

Fraser entered the room as Ray was bidding the woman goodbye. He introduced himself and shook hands. She clearly recognized his name, because she gave Ray a pointed look, before she excused herself and left. Fraser stood awkwardly for a moment, looking down at the man in the bed. “Ray, I’m sorry, but I heard some of your conversation. I always thought that you’d talk about your feelings when you were ready. I thought I was respecting your decision not to discuss what you’ve been through. It sounds like I was wrong.”

“It doesn’t matter right now. I just need to know that Carver is finally satisfied, and that he isn’t going to come back to prove whatever it is…that he’s smarter, or holds a grudge better, or won’t settle for anything less than a dead Vecchio. You know, if he hadn’t been such a show-off and sent you a clue, nobody would have known where I was, and I’d be dead now. He really is too clever for his own good, not that I’m complaining. I’m glad I’m not dead yet. I have you to thank for that, so thanks for finding me, by the way. I’m rambling, aren’t I? I’ll shut up now, and you can tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t want you to shut up, though, Ray. I want you to talk to me the way you talked to the woman who was here.”

“Yeah, well…that’s complicated. I’m sorry.” There was a brief silence, and then Ray said, “What is it that you want to know, exactly?”

Fraser settled into the bedside chair and leaned toward Ray. “I let you pull away from me. I didn’t even notice it happening. Was it something that I did that made you not trust me? Is there something I can do now to regain your friendship?”

“You wouldn’t have noticed it happening, because it didn’t happen to you. I trust you, I just have nothing to offer you. You have a life, and a career, and Kowalski, and a cabin in the tundra waiting for you when you retire. I have nothing to add to that. I was barely coping before this last…horribleness. My shrink doesn’t want me to go back to living alone, because she’s afraid I’ll stop eating again.”

“Again, Ray?”

“Yeah. OK, I guess after saving my life you deserve the story. While you were traveling with Kowalski and I was with Stella, my brain hadn’t caught up with me, and I was still acting like Armando. Then Ma got sick, and I went back home, and…well, you know how my family is. I was on the spot, and stressed out, and the Armando act wasn’t working, and just looking at food made me want to spew. I got my own place, and that helped. But me with eating, well, growing up with Ma’s cooking, it was like food equaled love. And when Ma was gone, and my sisters were mad at me, and you had a new best friend, and Stella and I were done, well, there was no love, and food was disgusting to me. I know it isn’t logical. I ended up in the hospital. They got me into an eating disorder program. I never even knew men could have anorexia, I thought it was something teenage girls had. Anyway, I got better, but my therapist is worried that I’ll relapse. She’s probably right. When I get home and there’s nobody around, it’s pretty easy to just curl up with a blanket over my head.”

“I’d have to check with Ray Kowalski, of course, but I think that we can accommodate your therapist’s advice. We have a spare room. Please consider it. Not only would it satisfy her recommendation for you to not live alone, but it would also provide additional security against Carver if he should be foolish enough to return.”

“You go ahead and check with Kowalski. There’s not much use in discussing it if he doesn’t want me around.”

“All right, Ray, I will. I’ll be back to talk to you tomorrow, if that’s all right.”

“Great. I’ll be here,” replied Ray, with a helpless gesture toward his I.V. drip.

Fraser replayed the conversation in his head on the bus ride home. Ray Kowalski greeted him when he came in, and asked about his visit with Vecchio. Fraser shared the story with him, and asked for his opinion. Would he be able to adjust to Vecchio living with them? Ray asked for some time to think it over. The next evening, when Fraser arrived at the hospital after work, he found Kowalski already at Vecchio’s bedside. “We’ve discussed it,” said Kowalski. “We’ve got to get Vecchio out of his lease, but that shouldn’t be too hard. We’re going to give it a try.”

“I can’t help too much from this bed, and I’m a mess, and half out of my mind, but if you’re willing I’d be stupid to say no.”

“Well, that’s not the wholehearted agreement I hoped for, but I’ll take it. Thank you both. I think this will be a step in the right direction for your health, and for our friendship.”

“Since they won’t release me for a while, you have time to reconsider, but I hope you won’t. I’m ready for a change in my luck. I’m ready to start feeling like I have a real life again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the episode The Duel. Set post-canon. Many thanks to my beta reader for many insights and corrections!


End file.
